Chicago – July 24, 2025
Columbia University said on Wednesday it will pay over $200 million to the U.S. government in a settlement with President Donald Trump’s administration to resolve federal probes and have most of its suspended federal funding restored.
Trump has targeted several universities since returning to office in January over the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that roiled college campuses last year. He welcomed the agreement between his administration and Columbia in a post on social media late on Wednesday.
In March, the Trump administration said it was penalizing Columbia over how it handled last year’s protests by canceling $400 million in federal funding. It contended that Columbia’s response to alleged antisemitism and harassment of Jewish and Israeli members of the university community was insufficient.
Columbia said it also agreed to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $21 million and that its deal with the Trump administration preserved its “autonomy and authority over faculty hiring, admissions, and academic decision-making.”
After the government canceled funding, the school acquiesced later in March to a series of demands that included scrutiny of departments offering courses on the Middle East and other concessions that were widely condemned by U.S. academics.
Last week, Columbia adopted a controversial definition of antisemitism that equates it with opposition to Zionism. The school said it would no longer engage with pro-Palestinian group Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
“Imagine selling your students out just so you can pay Trump $221 million dollars and keep funding genocide,” the pro-Palestinian group said on Wednesday, calling the settlement a bribe.
